Lewis Hamilton confirmed at Mercedes for 2013

Because he has 6 more races with the team to go. Any rational person will not rock the boat while you have to live in that environment.

Is it really that hard to figure out for you....jeez.

Right....

Quite frankly I find it rather hard to see how Lewis, after announcing he is leaving, could really rock the boat more significantly with a few ill advised words. There is a pretty good example from 2006 of such utterly idiotic comments amounting to diddly. Lewis rocked the boat quite enough by completing the move. More to the point the people that have actually worked for his car might feel more insulted by fluffy words which do not ring sincere than by some bitter comments which did. If he was worried about how his crew felt he should keep his trap shut.

Besides you failed to answer the pertinent question, why would he feel compelled to spill his guts after he leaves the team. Washing dirty laundry in public would still hurt his reputation on the paddock big time.

I wouldn't be surprised to see a much more competitive Merc next year.

Lewis probably won't have detailed knowledge of what McLaren have been looking at, but he might well know what ideas they have, and it could give the Merc boys a lot of inspiration, let's say.

When Pedro De La Rosa left McLaren for the 1st time to join Sauber, he brought the Fduct idea to Sauber from McLaren . At the start of 2010, McLaren and Sauber were the only Team that had the Fduct working properly.

Well in reply to those examples (trying not to kick off a sub debate here) .. McLaren already knew Lewis was looking else where. It still doesn't mean he couldn't tell them of his final decision in a different way to what he did. And the Mansell thing was because Williams signed Prost behind his back and relations were already severely damaged by the time Mansell retired.

Ah, the new angle of attack....He was in Asia when the decision was made... so yes, your expectation is unreasonable. Had he waited for face-to face meetings I expect you would have found reason to criticise that too given the delay there would have been between Mercedes knowing and McLaren knowing. McLaren weren't exactly bowled over with surprise either.

Was SP's contract announced first then? I heard about LH moving first, but it's not surprising that that would have got top billing.

As far as official announcements go, Perez's move was announced first, but only after the likes of Autosport began reporting that Mercedes were set to announce the signing of Hamilton that day. A bit of thunder-stealing/ face saving.

As far as official announcements go, Perez's move was announced first, but only after the likes of Autosport began reporting that Mercedes were set to announce the signing of Hamilton that day. A bit of thunder-stealing/ face saving.

As far as official announcements go, Perez's move was announced first, but only after the likes of Autosport began reporting that Mercedes were set to announce the signing of Hamilton that day. A bit of thunder-stealing/ face saving.

Possibly also correlated sharing of the news cycle from least to most important: 1) Perez to McLaren 2) Hamilton to Mercedes 3) Schumacher retires

For what I know, Lewis decided to stay at McLaren and told them during the summer break and that's when they presented him the famous ' pay cut' contract. That's the contract Lewis publicly called shit. It was because of that Lewis started to truly look for option, he even thought about other category. After the tweet gate, Lewis called someone at Mercedes and told that person he was leaving. It's true he didn't sign nothing yet till last few days.

Dont know the dates like you but that is consistent with what I understand ... LH is a bit immature for his age... and the folks at Macca are increasingly frustrated by this. As one person (not in the team but who is in Motorsports at a reasonably high level ) put it "he missed his teenage years and is living them out now" ... my understanding is that no tears are being shed at Macca ...and for the record for those who dont know, I am not an LH hater. In fact, the opposite.

I dont know from LH's side ATM.

My interpretation of what people who I believe to be in the know in terms of high level rumours (and that's rumours and not hard facts as none of us outside a very few really know anything that happened, no matter what people are saying ATM) is that he was pushed rather than that he jumped... which is not what I was expecting to be hearing. Hopefully other posters who are usually good with this sort of info will chime in as well.

Dont know the dates like you but that is consistent with what I understand ... LH is a bit immature for his age... and the folks at Macca are increasingly frustrated by this. As one person (not in the team but who is in Motorsports at a reasonably high level ) put it "he missed his teenage years and is living them out now" ... my understanding is that no tears are being shed at Macca ...and for the record for those who dont know, I am not an LH hater. In fact, the opposite.

I dont know from LH's side ATM.

My interpretation of what people who I believe to be in the know in terms of high level rumours (and that's rumours and not hard facts as none of us outside a very few really know anything that happened, no matter what people are saying ATM) is that he was pushed rather than that he jumped... which is not what I was expecting to be hearing. Hopefully other posters who are usually good with this sort of info will chime in as well.

Hopefully he has the last laugh over at Merc.

Reading between the lines, that's the impression I got too. I have no inside information though.

Dont know the dates like you but that is consistent with what I understand ... LH is a bit immature for his age... and the folks at Macca are increasingly frustrated by this. As one person (not in the team but who is in Motorsports at a reasonably high level ) put it "he missed his teenage years and is living them out now" ... my understanding is that no tears are being shed at Macca ...and for the record for those who dont know, I am not an LH hater. In fact, the opposite.

I dont know from LH's side ATM.

My interpretation of what people who I believe to be in the know in terms of high level rumours (and that's rumours and not hard facts as none of us outside a very few really know anything that happened, no matter what people are saying ATM) is that he was pushed rather than that he jumped... which is not what I was expecting to be hearing. Hopefully other posters who are usually good with this sort of info will chime in as well.

Hopefully he has the last laugh over at Merc.

He was being pushed out for a while. Plus Sergio Perez has confirmed Mclaren approached him a few months ago ( so much not having a plan B). What I don't know is if it's true that at the end they wanted him to stay and offer him a better contract ( My source is quiet on facebook at the moment )

Dont know the dates like you but that is consistent with what I understand ... LH is a bit immature for his age... and the folks at Macca are increasingly frustrated by this. As one person (not in the team but who is in Motorsports at a reasonably high level ) put it "he missed his teenage years and is living them out now" ... my understanding is that no tears are being shed at Macca ...and for the record for those who dont know, I am not an LH hater. In fact, the opposite.

I dont know from LH's side ATM.

My interpretation of what people who I believe to be in the know in terms of high level rumours (and that's rumours and not hard facts as none of us outside a very few really know anything that happened, no matter what people are saying ATM) is that he was pushed rather than that he jumped... which is not what I was expecting to be hearing. Hopefully other posters who are usually good with this sort of info will chime in as well.

Hopefully he has the last laugh over at Merc.

if he was that pushed, then everyone including LH is doing an elaborately fantastic job in deception and spinning it the other way. It is just simply not consistent with what we know.....if this was another 2011 type season, it may be understandable that Mac bosses are fed up...but nothing from the team including the high praise from MW as far back as Spain is consistent with that, except they've put a mighty effort into one huge elaborate hoax, which when u think of it is unnecc... if that was the case. It's not the first time a team is getting rid of a WDC driver that they have to spin to high heavens to make it look like total opposite.

if he was that pushed, then everyone including LH is doing an elaborately fantastic job in deception and spinning it the other way. It is just simply not consistent with what we know.....if this was another 2011 type season, it may be understandable that Mac bosses are fed up...but nothing from the team including the high praise from MW as far back as Spain is consistent with that, except they've put a mighty effort into one huge elaborate hoax, which when u think of it is unnecc... if that was the case. It's not the first time a team is getting rid of a WDC driver that they have to spin to high heavens to make it look like total opposite.

but who knows...

I agree

I can well believe there are peope at mac sighing with relief and I expect lewis and mclaren's mutual affection to ramp up on both sides now that they know they're going to be separated.

But Lewis claims MW has been asking him when he'll sign a new deal since china last year, MW is on record as saying they put too much pressure on him when he had a personal situation going on - which to me means they were putting pressure on him to sign when his auntie was ill/just died (the timing of MW@s comment made that pretty clear), this further ties in with Lewis talking about him missing deadlines.

Furthermore everyone agrees that macca put a good offer on the table - MW, lewis and brawn all singing from the same hymn sheet on that one.

I think Macca wanted Lewis to stay, they've been trying to get him to meet deadlines to sign and he's been resisting, they upped the offer and the charm offensive when they realised merc was a serious alternative.

Too much evidence on one side and twisting of facts to meet a pre determined viewpoint on the other imo...although I apprecaite that accusation could also be laid at a lewis fan assuming that he's good enough for macca to want to keep him. I think that rating of Lewis is shared by most people within the sport though.

I can well believe there are peope at mac sighing with relief and I expect lewis and mclaren's mutual affection to ramp up on both sides now that they know they're going to be separated.

But Lewis claims MW has been asking him when he'll sign a new deal since china last year, MW is on record as saying they put too much pressure on him when he had a personal situation going on - which to me means they were putting pressure on him to sign when his auntie was ill/just died (the timing of MW@s comment made that pretty clear), this further ties in with Lewis talking about him missing deadlines.

Furthermore everyone agrees that macca put a good offer on the table - MW, lewis and brawn all singing from the same hymn sheet on that one.

I think Macca wanted Lewis to stay, they've been trying to get him to meet deadlines to sign and he's been resisting, they upped the offer and the charm offensive when they realised merc was a serious alternative.

Too much evidence on one side and twisting of facts to meet a pre determined viewpoint on the other imo...although I apprecaite that accusation could also be laid at a lewis fan assuming that he's good enough for macca to want to keep him. I think that rating of Lewis is shared by most people within the sport though.

Now that the Lewis has made his decision, and has talked about it, perhaps we could consider the possibility that he really wanted to leave McLaren and that nothing they could do would induce him to stay. McLaren may not be to blame in all of this. Equally, Lewis is not to blame. Simply, the time had come for this to happen.

Grosjean and Pastor starting 8 and 9 could wipe out both red bulls jenson and kim into T1, leaving michael and nico to fight it out while lewis comes from last after some other "in hindsight" blunder by the team means he got pole but starts last.